Trending

Article content

Thousands of elective procedures were postponed March 18 to ensure the province had enough capacity to handle a potential surge in COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization. About 3,000 day surgeries have been performed the service resumed May 4 and Shandro said in-patient procedures can safely resume now that Alberta has flattened the curve.

“The data is showing at this time that our health-care staff are doing an amazing job of preventing the transmission of the virus and keeping themselves and patients in the province safe,” Shandro said, noting that only 200 hospital staff — or three per cent — have tested positive for COVID-19.

Albertans who have been on the wait list the longest will be contacted to have their inpatient surgeries rescheduled first. More day surgeries will be completed as well.

Advertisement

Story continues below

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Article content continued

Since the decision to pause elective surgeries, approximately 20,000 to 25,000 procedures were postponed as of April 30. About 20,000 urgent and emergent surgeries went ahead in March and April, and there is now a list of 80,000 Albertans waiting for non-urgent or elective surgeries.

Shandro also announced that, beginning Monday, asymptomatic residents and staff at all long-term care homes and designated supportive living facilities will be eligible for COVID-19 testing. Previously, Alberta Health was only testing asymptomatic residents or workers at facilities that had declared outbreaks.

Advertisement

Story continues below

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Article content continued

Shandro’s announcements came after Premier Jason Kenney gave Calgary and Brooks hair salons, restaurants, cafes and bars the green light to open Monday after being excluded from the province’s lifting of COVID-19 restrictions last week.

Retailers in the communities, which accounted for 85 per cent of the province’s total active cases of COVID-19 to date, were permitted to reopen along with the rest of the province on May 14.

Kenney said the province is still targeting June 19 for the second stage of relaunch, but will continue to keep an eye on infection numbers.

Energy regulation under fire, Keystone XL row continues

Meanwhile, Kenney said the Alberta Energy Regulator’s decisions Wednesdayto temporarily suspend a wide array of environmental monitoring requirements for the energy sector were made independently from the government.

Advertisement

Story continues below

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Article content continued

The changes remove the requirement for companies to monitor fumes released by burning, or look for and repair leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Surface waters no longer need to be tested, unless they escape into the environment — and that water no longer needs to be tested in a lab.

Soil and groundwater monitoring is no longer required, “with the exception of any monitoring that is necessary to protect human health and ecological receptors,” the decisions say.

When asked if the moves were meant to save the industry money, Kenney said “companies felt conflicted about their ability to comply with public health orders and also fulfil regulatory requirements.” However, he deferred further questions to the regulator.

Advertisement

Story continues below

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Article content continued

Shawn Roth, spokesman for the Alberta Energy Regulator, said in an e-mail monitoring and reporting requirements that are difficult for workers to perform safely while complying with the current public health orders have been suspended, however protecting the environment and public safety remains the AER’s “highest priority.”

Opposition NDP leader Rachel Notley said Thursday the move was “utterly idiotic,” and accused Kenney of using the pandemic to make changes to how the industry operates.

“We have a government that is telling hairdressers that it’s OK to go get close enough to people to cut their hair, but somehow oil and gas companies and environmental safety officers cannot go to a lake and check the water to see if there are carcinogens in it,” she said.

Advertisement

Story continues below

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Article content continued

Notley said the move will make it difficult for Alberta businesses in the long term to convince both international markets and the federal government they are committed to environmental goals.

The regulation changes came after U.S. presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said through his campaign Monday he would rip up approvals for the Keystone XL pipeline project if elected in November. In a Friday interview with CNBC, Biden repeated that he is against the project, and said “we’re going to transition gradually to get to a clean economy.”

Kenney responded Friday by saying the U.S. needs energy, and it will either come from Alberta, or “socialist dictatorship” Venezuela. He added that shipping the oil by rail would result in higher carbon emissions than a pipeline.

“A whole lot of jobs and the economy in the American midwest are dependent on that supply of energy through the Keystone pipeline,” Kenney said.

Share this article in your social network

Trending

Related Stories

This Week in Flyers

Article Comments

Comments

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.

Notice for the Postmedia Network

This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.